The South Tahoe Vikings baseball team extended its win streak to four games against Truckee this past weekend in the first game of a doubleheader, but the Wolverines claimed the nightcap.

Viking hurler Chris Pfister put forth his best effort of the season by shutting down Truckee 3-0 in the opener. But the Wolverine bats woke up in the second game to beat the Vikings 12-2 in six innings in Truckee.

"The first game went well," said South Tahoe's Cameron Johnson. "Chris threw a lot of strikes. It was a lot of fun playing defense behind him. We got some timely hits and it was an overall fun game. The nightcap was a little rough."

Pfister, a right-handed senior, tossed a complete game and allowed just three hits while striking out five. It was his second victory of the season.

"He was dominant throwing all his pitches for strikes," said South Tahoe head coach Starbuck Teevan. "He worked fast, kept the defense on their toes and we made all the plays in the field. It was a very clean game."

Tucker Cannon had two hits, including a double and RBI and Peyton Galli smacked two hits and scored to lead the Vikings offense.

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Jaden Aquino added a double and run scored, Aaron Johnson singled and drove in a run and Kevin Lehmann singled and scored.

"Obviously we'd like contributions throughout the lineup, but Truckee's pitcher threw very well against us," Teevan said. "We got clutch hits at the right times and took the first game."

The Vikings went up early on the Wolverines in Game 2 in going for the sweep.

Lehmann led off the game with a hit and came around to score with help from hits by Galli, Aquino and Pfister.

South Tahoe led 1-0 in the top of the third when Galli launched his second home run of the season, a soaring blast over the fence, to make it 2-0.

But the Vikings best pitcher so far this year, Cameron Johnson, struggled in the third inning and surrendered three runs, two earned, and was relieved by Galli. After being shutout for nine straight innings, the Truckee bats got going and put up seven runs in the fourth to make it 10-2 and essentially put the game on ice. Auston Burdick relieved Galli and slowed Truckee's offensive avalanche, but it was too late.

"Truckee took full advantage of their opportunities and didn't look back," Teevan said. "Auston relieved Galli and did a very good job for us. He came in threw strikes and got us off the field. Unfortunately the damage was done."

The Vikings (10-8, 7-7 3A Northern League) played at Dayton (9-11, 6-10 3A Northern) Tuesday afternoon, April 17. They will host the Lowry Buckaroos at 3 p.m. Friday, April 20, at South Tahoe Middle School and will return to the field the next day to play a doubleheader against the Buckaroos (8-12, 7-8 3A Northern). The first game starts at 11 a.m.

The Vikings had a difficult early league schedule, facing some of the top teams in the league, all three teams that sit above them in the league standings: Elko (12-1), Churchill County (11-2) and Truckee (8-4). They finish by playing teams with lesser records as they push toward postseason. The top six teams reach playoffs and the Vikings are improving with the weather.

"This Team hasn't yet learned to play a full day of baseball," Teevan said. "We play very well at times, and other times when faced with some adversity we haven't risen to the occasion. It starts with our pitchers throwing strikes. Defensively, we've improved a ton, but still need to continue improving. Offensively, we need to be more consistent in our approach. Looking at the best pitches go by, then swinging at balls in the dirt is not a good approach. We're fighting for a playoff spot and the time is now to step up as a collective unit. I feel our best baseball is ahead of us. We'll see how the team responds the next several games."